A recent study done by researchers at the MIT Sloane School of Management has found that runners do influence each other in their training and workout routines, according to the New York Times. Researchers collected data on 1.1 million runners around the world who had collectively run almost 225 million miles over five years. Intuitively, we predicted that friends tend to have similar running routines day to day, over time, even in different geographic locations. But we have to consider correlation versus causation: do friends influence each other's’ running habits or do people choose running friends with similar habits?

The study found that runners do influence each other by pushing each other to run more. For instance, if a person ran 10 more minutes than usual on a given day, his or her friends would also increase the amount of time they ran by several minutes, even in the case of inclement weather (the MIT researchers also collected weather data for the five years that the runners were monitored.) In a running network, male runners seemed to be influenced by both their male and female friends, but female runners seemed to be almost exclusively influenced by their female friends. These trends could point to habits that form during young adulthood or even sooner when we respond to social cues within our friend groups, especially with respect to athleticism or body image.

Running is an ideal activity to collect data on because of its integration with devices that track activity and distance. Running can also easily be a social activity: we often run with buddies or engage in friendly competition with friends to increase stamina. More importantly, running is a sport that is often more accessible than other sports. As we continue to examine the influence friends play in forming healthy habits, we should also ask ourselves how we can use studies like this to help build healthy habits for our students.